The present invention is directed to an electronic program-guide (EPG) system that enables a television viewer of a program in a particular category to xe2x80x9csideways surfxe2x80x9d to the next channel carrying another program in the same category.
The capacity of television-distribution systems is beginning to exceed the decision-making capability of the average viewer. Currently, over 60 million households in the United States subscribe to one of over 10,000 cable-television systems, and more than 45% of those subscribers receive 54 or more channels. In addition, over 5 million US households subscribe to satellite-television services that use digital-compression technology allowing up to 200 channels. In the future, high-bandwidth cable systems using digital compression will be able to offer more than 500 channels of standard quality, although this number will be reduced if some of the channels carry high-definition programming.
A. Television-Distribution Systems
FIG. 1 depicts a typical prior-art system in which a television-distribution network 10 delivers television signals in channels to a simple user-interface unit 12 that functions as a channel selector. The television-distribution network may be a cable-television system as described by Walter S. Ciciorca in xe2x80x9cCable Television in the United Statesxe2x80x94An Overview,xe2x80x9d which was published by Cable Television Labs in 1995. In a cable-television system, a network interface 11 such as a multitap allows for splitting the signals off a distribution cable of the network for transmission along a drop cable into the subscriber""s premises. The television-distribution network could also be a direct-broadcast satellite (DBS) system. A DBS system delivers television signals in channels on a microwave carrier to a subscriber""s user-interface unit. A third type of distribution system called xe2x80x9cwireless cablexe2x80x9d or MMDS (for Multichannel Multipoint Distribution Services) also uses a microwave carrier, but the transmitters are on the ground. Multiple transmitters are used to extend the range of a system from the 30-40 mile line-of-sight range of a single transmitter. Both DBS and MMDS distribution systems use a stationary dish antenna as the network interface 11 to acquire the microwave carrier at the subscriber""s premises. The television distribution network may also be traditional broadcast television, wherein the network interface may be a roof-mounted antenna or rabbit-ears.
B. Channel Selector
In the typical prior-art system of FIG. 1, a viewer controls a user-interface unit 12 at a remote control 123, which is typically an infrared transmitter. The viewer can enter a channel number on a numeric keypad of the remote control, and a receiver 124 will forward the number to a controller 125. In a simple system, the controller accepts two numbers at a time, so if the viewer wants channel 2, he or she presses the 0 key before pressing the 2 key. The controller causes a tuner 121 to pass a video signal 131 of the selected channel to a video-display generator 122. The video-display generator also receives the selected channel number directly from the controller and overlays a graphical representation of the channel number 132 on the video of the selected channel. Typically the controller presents a newly selected channel number to the video-display generator only for a few seconds, to allow the viewer to confirm the selection that he or she made. The selected video is remodulated at a modulator 126 so that it may be received by the TV receiver 13 at a fixed channel, usually channel 3 or 4. The viewer may also press up and down-arrow keys on the remote control to cause the user-interface to select the next higher or lower channel number. When the network is a cable-television network, the user-interface unit 12 may be incorporated in a cable-ready VCR or television receiver. Satellite-ready television receivers have been produced also, but it is more common to use a separate user-interface unit with a DBS or MMDS distribution network, because a relatively expensive tuner is used to receive channels from the microwave carrier of those systems.
C. Non-Interactive Program Guides
A viewer who is interested in a particular type of program can consult television listings provided in magazines and newspapers. However, these sources list program titles by channel and time slot, so the viewer must read the titles of all the programs offered at the time of interest. TV Listings published in newspapers and magazines fail to reflect schedule changes caused by special broadcasts or by the unpredictable timing of live events. Printed listings are also incomplete as to which channel number a viewer should select, especially for cable channels.
If the viewer subscribes to a television-distribution service, he or she can also usually select a special channel that is dedicated to a program guide 20 as depicted in FIG. 2. Program-guide channels are also inconvenient because standard-quality television can display only a limited amount of readable text. Therefore only a few channel listings are shown at a time and slowly scroll the program-guide information through the displayed video 21. In the example shown in FIG. 2, a viewer who wants to watch a sitcom will have to remember that there is such a program on channel 2 until the listing for channel 61 appears on the screen. Thereafter, the viewer will have to remember which programs are showing on both channels 2 and 61 while many other listings scroll onto the screen. This takes some effort and intensifies the impatience viewers feel while waiting for the program-guide channel to return to where it was when they started watching it. Very often, viewers ignore the program-guide channel instead, preferring to xe2x80x9csurfxe2x80x9d up or down through the channels instead, watching a few seconds of each program to see if it looks interesting.
D. Interactive Electronic Program-Guide System
Interactive electronic program-guide systems are also known in the art. An electronic program-guide system comprises data and software that reside in a user-interface unit that is commonly referred to as a set-top box. For example, a system for controlling a television receiver to allow user selection of broadcast programs from schedule information is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,706,121 issued to Patrick Young on Nov. 10, 1987. FIG. 3 depicts an illustrative user-interface unit 30 that receives television signals in channels from the television-distribution network 10 at a tuner 31. The user-interface unit also receives a program guide at a data decoder 32. The program guide may be thought as a spread sheet with rows labeled by channel numbers, columns labeled by time slots, and titles of scheduled programs filled into cells that may occupy one or more half-hour time slots. A data processor 34 moves the program guide into a memory 33 for later use.
User-interface unit 30 allows a viewer to choose a program-guide (PG) mode and a television (TV) mode. The viewer can toggle back and forth between these modes by pressing a PG/TV key 351 at a remote control 35. In TV mode, a numeric-key array 352 and up and down-arrow keys 353 and 354, respectively, allow the viewer to select programs in the same way as described above in connection with the channel selector shown in FIG. 1. The data processor also causes the video-display generator 37 to superimpose the channel number 132 on the video 131 of the channel just selected for a few seconds.
When the electronic program guide is in TV mode and the viewer presses the PG/TV button, a signal is received at a receiver 36, where it is accessible to the data processor 34. The data processor responds by retrieving a portion of the program guide from the memory and sending it to a video-display generator 37. The video-display generator shows a portion of the program-guide spreadsheet 41 on the television receiver 13 as illustrated in FIG. 4. There is a current cell (channel and time slot or slots) CPG 42 associated with the PG mode, and the user-interface unit identifies CPG to the viewer by blinking the program title in that cell.
A system for positioning the spreadsheet is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,121 issued to Young, Roop and Faber on Oct. 4, 1994. When the viewer selects the PG mode, the spreadsheet reappears as it was just before the viewer had selected TV mode previously. Thereafter, the viewer may move CPG to a cell at earlier or later time slots by pressing left and right-arrow keys 355 and 356, respectively, on the remote control. The user may also move CPG to lower or higher-numbered channels by pressing the up and down-arrow keys 353 and 354, respectively, of the remote control. When CPG reaches a boundary of the displayed portion of the program spreadsheet, one more step in the same direction as the previous one moves the displayed portion of the program spreadsheet by one channel or one time slot such that CPG remains at the boundary.
While the electronic program guide is in PG mode, the viewer can move CPG to any cell and press a select key 357 on the remote control. At that point, the program title in the selected cell will be both underlined and blinking. When the viewer moves CPG again, a previously selected cell such as cell 43 will be underlined only. More than one cell can be selected. However, selecting a second cell that overlaps a previously selected first cell deselects the first cell in the overlapping time slot or slots. The program title in a cell that has been partially unselected in this manner will be underlined only in the remaining selected time slot or slots. A cell that has been selected or partially selected can be toggled back to the unselected state by moving CPG to that cell again and pressing the select key.
After selecting or partially selecting one or more cells in PG mode, the viewer can toggle the electronic program guide back to TV mode by pressing the PG/TV key 351. The data processor 34 will carry out the viewer""s selections by sending the channel number of selected or partially selected cells to the tuner 31 as the selected time slots become current. If the current time slot is unselected, the electronic program guide will return to the channel that was last shown in TV mode. It should be noted that the left and right-arrow keys 355 and 356 and the select key 357 have no defined operation in TV mode, so the data processor should do nothing on such inputs.
Computer-literate users may prefer an interactive electronic program-guide system that allows a viewer to choose programs from a spreadsheet. However, it still requires viewers to base their decisions on program titles that they read off the television screen. The program titles also unavoidably become somewhat cryptic when they are shortened to fit into a the cells of a spreadsheet. Because of these drawbacks, a viewer with an interactive electronic program-guide system may still choose to surf up and down the channel lineup in TV mode. Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a more intuitive electronic program-guide system that allows a viewer of a program in a particular category to xe2x80x9csideways surfxe2x80x9d to the next channel carrying another program in the same category.
The electronic program-guide (EPG) system of the current invention comprises a method which allows a viewer of a television program in a category (such as movies, sports, specials, etc.) appearing on a channel of a television-distribution network to select a second channel carrying another program in the same category. Illustratively, the inventive EPG system can be loaded into a user-interface unit of the prior-art electronic program-guide system, and all defined operations in the program guide (PG) and television (TV) modes will continue to work. However, previously undefined inputs at the remote control are made meaningful in the inventive EPG system. The program guide in the inventive EPG system includes a category for each program, and the new functionality relates to choosing programs based on their categories.
In a preferred embodiment, the left and right-arrow keys, and the select key of the remote control are defined in the inventive EPG system in its TV mode. In a first embodiment, a viewer can surf to the next higher or lower-numbered channel carrying another program in the same category as the program he or she is currently watching by pushing the right or left-arrow key, respectively. If the viewer presses the select key in the TV mode, the EPG system will change to the next category in which a program is currently showing. If more than one channel is carrying such a program, the lowest-numbered channel showing a program in the next category will be selected.
In TV mode, the inventive EPG system indicates the availability of other channels carrying programs in the same category as the program in the channel just selected. Illustratively, a right arrow is shown when such channels exist at higher numbers and a left arrow is shown when they exist at lower channel numbers. This indication is illustratively given at the top of the screen in what is called a xe2x80x9cchannel hat or other icon.xe2x80x9d The channel hat is displayed for a few seconds only and illustratively also contains the channel number, title, and category of the program in the channel just selected.
The new functionality relates to the categorization of programs described in xe2x80x9cProgram Guide for Digital Television, ATSC Standard,xe2x80x9d which is Document A/55 dated Jan. 3, 1996 of the Advanced Television Systems Committee. The contents of this document are incorporated herein by reference. This standard describes a format for transmitting a master program guide of data about current and future programs in a digital-television system. The standard provides an 8-bit index to a classification of programs. Not all of the 256 combinations have been assigned. The standard classifies the categories that it does assign into 6 types: Movies, Sports, Specials, Series, News, and Shopping. Illustratively, the inventive EPG system expands this short list to 13 categories: Movies (all), Sports (all), Specials (all), Series (Children, Comedy, Drama, other), News (Business, Current, General Interest, Sports, Weather), and Shopping.